It had been another week and Alfred was now back on his feet. Bruce had let Dick stay, and Bruce had been quiet about the subject. Normally that would be a good thing, but Alfred could see on Bruce's face, every once and a while, that he was still thinking about it, and Alfred was pretty sure that the situation right now wasn't helping.

Alfred got a call from Commissioner Gordon at about four that afternoon, telling him that Dick and Barbra were jumped on the way to Gordon's house. Barbra managed to get away thanks to Dick, but he wasn't so lucky.

At the time, Bruce was in a very important business meeting and wasn't taking any calls. It was another hour before Bruce finally heard about the kidnapping. Now he was pacing back and forth in front of the phone.

"Sir, please calm down. Pacing like that is not going to make them call any faster."

Bruce stared at the phone then went over and sat down next to Alfred on the couch. "Sorry," he said as he leaned back on the couch. "It's just, we wouldn't even have to be waiting if they hadn't found a way to deactivate the tracking devices."

Alfred placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder. "He's going to be fine."

"But you don't know that," Bruce said as he stood back up and began pacing again. "This is just one reason why I have to take him back."

Alfred flinched. He was right, Bruce was still thinking about taking Dick back to the orphanage, and this situation just made up his mind for him. "Master Bruce, please."

"No, Alfred, I've made up my mind." His face went from angry to sad. "I'll take him Monday morning."

Alfred looked horrified, but before he could say anything to try and change his mind, the phone went off.

To Alfred, it looked like Bruce dove for the phone. "Hello?"

"Mr. Wayne, we have your son," a low voice said.

"What do you want?"

"We want five hundred million dollars, all cash, in half an hour taken to the docks."

"Where at at the docks?"

"Don't worry about finding us, Mr. Wayne, we'll find you, and if there's any funny business like the cops or Batman... Well, let's just say your son will be meeting some new friends." The man laughed before Bruce heard a click that told him the guy hung up.

Bruce just stood there after he put the phone down. "Sir?" Alfred asked worriedly.

Bruce didn't say a word just turned around and ran out the door.

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Bruce stood at the docks with the five hundred million dollars in one of his cheaper briefcases. 'Dang it. How many times have I had to do this?' Bruce sighed. "Dick, you don't deserve this life," he whispered so quietly that he barely heard himself.

"Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce spun around and saw a tall, well-built man with dark hair coming toward him. 'I swear, if he...' "Oh my..." He saw another man, slightly shorter and not as well-built, drag Dick from out of the shadows.

Dick had a long cut down the left side of his cheek and a huge bruise going from his left eye all the way down to this chin. He also looked groggy like he had been drugged, but Bruce just put it off as exhaustion from the beating he had.

"Do you have the money?"

Bruce threw the briefcase at the man's feet. "It's all there."

The man knelt down, opened the case, looked through it for a minute, then closed the case and stood up. He gave the briefcase to the second man and roughly grabbed Dick by the arm, causing Dick to stumble and almost fall. "As promised," he said then threw Dick at Bruce's feet. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

Bruce knelt down and just glared at the two laughing men retreating. "Dick, are you ok?" he finally asked as he helped Dick up.

Dick just barreled into Bruce's chest crying. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm so sorry."

"Shhhh," Bruce said rubbing Dick's back. "It's not your fault, Dickie. Shhhh."

They just sat there, Bruce holding and comforting Dick as Dick cried into his chest.

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Monday morning came and Bruce was up in Dick's room packing up his stuff. He didn't want to do this to Dick, but he knew it was for the best.

Once he got all of Dick's stuff together, he took it all down and put it in the trunk of the car then went down to the Batcave to call Dick home. Bruce had let Dick spend one last night with his friends.

"I really wish you would reconsider, Master Bruce," Alfred said as he came up behind him. "Or at least tell him that he's never going to see them again so that he can say goodbye to his friends properly."

Bruce sighed. "You know why I can't do that."

"Yes, because he would try to disappear so that he wouldn't have to leave a home that he loves being at," Alfred replied with a bit of a bite.

"Alfred, please, don't start this again. I'm only doing what's best for him."

"I beg to differ." Alfred then turned around and walked to the elevator to return to the house.

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"Dude, so why did Bats let you stay the night? He never lets you stay the night," Wally asked as a commercial interrupted the show the team was watching.

"I don't know, but he's been acting pretty strange since Friday night," Robin replied.

"How so?" Kaldur asked.

"Well, he's been a little distant and every time he looked at me, he'd get sad and either turn away from me, or walk out of the room."

"Sounds to me like he's regretting something," Conner said.

"Yeah, that was my guess too. I mean, he always does that the first day after I've been captured or hurt and all, but never three days in a row."

Kaldur placed a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Perhaps you are just over thinking things."

Robin smiled. "Yeah, you're probably... Yeah?" he asked putting his hand to his ear and looking down. "Alright, I'll be home in a minute." Before he put his hand back down, his face twisted in confusion.

"Dude, what's with the face?" Wally asked.

Robin looked up to Wally. "Batman wants me to get home, but he said to take as long as I need to say good bye."

Everyone looked at him and each other confused. "What do you think he meant by that?" Wally asked now a bit scared.

"I don't know," Robin replied a bit nervously, but then smiled, "but don't worry 'bout it. It's probably nothing. I'll see you guys tomorrow," he said as he started off for the zeta tubes. The rest of the team wasn't so sure about Robin's confidence.

"Recognize, Robin, B01."

The room was quiet until Wally spoke up. "Guys, why do I have the feeling that we're not going to see him tomorrow?" They all just stared toward the zeta tubes.

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Robin walked through the zeta tube and into the dark cave. He was still nervous and he just couldn't shake this feeling.

He took off his sunglasses and walked over to where Bruce was standing waiting for him. He stopped right in front of Bruce. "Bruce, is everything ok?"

"Yeah, come on," Bruce said emotionless as he walked into the elevator.

Dick was getting even more scared now. 'I don't like this,' he thought as he followed Bruce.

They walked off the elevator, through the living room, and met Alfred at the door. Dick stopped when he saw Alfred standing there smiling while holding out his jacket. 'Maybe I am just jumping to conclusions. Alfred wouldn't be smiling if I was going anywhere, would he?'

Bruce was following behind Dick and gave him a little push when he saw that Dick stopped. "Come on, Dick, we're going to be late."

Dick looked up at Bruce then back to Alfred. Alfred then pulled him into a hug. "So long, Master Dick." He then stood up and walked away without looking back.

Dick just stared at Alfred then looked back at Bruce as they walked out the door and to the car. "Is Alfred ok?"

"Yeah, he just has stuff to do," Bruce said not even looking down at Dick.

They both got in the car, Bruce started it up, and they drove out of the drive way. Dick looked back at the mansion.

'You know he's taking you away right?' a voice in his head said.

'No, Bruce wouldn't do that to me. He couldn't.' Dick then turned around and watched out the window as the scenery went by.

The ride was quiet, not a single word spoken the entire way. The air in the car seemed to freeze completely when Bruce pulled into the one place that Dick hoped never to see again.

'What did I tell you?' "Bruce, what are we doing at the orphanage?"

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Another chapter down, one more to go. Hope you'll stay with it 'til the end.

Thanks for reading :D